Gender and History in Modern South Asia Research Paper

Gender and History in Modern South Asia - Research Paper Example Mani states that one of the reasons that the colonial government abolished the right known as sati was as a result of the belief that it was an inhuman practice that did not put into consideration the rights of the women who underwent it.1 Colonial officials believed that sati was done because the family of women’s husbands did not wish to be saddled with the upkeep of widows. Furthermore, it was believed that these families did not wish widows to contest their husbands’ estates and this was a reason why they were coerced to undergo the right. The result was that the colonial government came to believe that the women who underwent sati were coerced to do so by greedy relatives and members of the Brahmin caste who were called upon to officiate the occasion. Colonial officials wished to institute laws that were designed to ensure that women were protected against what they saw as the depravity of the whole practice of sati, hence the move to abolish it. However, contempor ary scholarship shows that despite there being some cases of women being coerced to undergo sati, a significant number of them went willingly and there were instances where despite being held back by their relatives, they fought their way to the pyre so that they could go with their husbands. In addition, contemporary scholarship shows that some people within the local population were also opposed to sati and made arguments that mirrored those of colonial officials. Contemporary scholars are shown to believe that the sati would have eventually have come to an end in India without the intervention of the colonial government and despite the belief among the latter that sati was practiced all over India, was not as widespread and had fallen into disuse except for Calcutta and the areas surrounding it.